Facebook: New CFO And IPO Coming Soon?
March 31, 2009 by Tisa Silver
Filed under Finance
Today, Facebook announced that it is searching for a new chief financial officer. According to the Associated Press, Gideon Yu is leaving the company after serving as the head of finance for less than two years.
Photo by jaycameron, courtesy of flickr
Mr. Yu had venture capital experience and also worked for Yahoo and YouTube before joining Facebook in July 2007.
The company also said it was looking to hire a person with “public company experience.” Adding fuel to the speculation that Facebook will soon go public.
An IPO would allow Facebook to issue stock and gain access to funding from public investors.
The IPO rumors started flying in 2007. Seeking Alpha’s Paul Kedrosky predicted that Facebook would file by August 2007.
In October 2007, Facebook’s creator, Mark Zuckerburg, crushed all hopes for a 2007 IPO by saying that a filing was ”definitely years out.”
Other Facebook investors and executives echoed Zuckerburg’s sentiment, but added that a Facebook IPO could take place in 2009.
Well, here we are in 2009. Is the market ready for a Facebook IPO?
If you think so, then you are not alone. If you have a Facebook account, you can always join the discussion group “Facebook should go public and allow members of group to buy pre-IPO shares.”
